Uprooting the ‘ghost workers’ cabals

THE recent uncovering of 2,021 fictitious names on its payroll by the Oyo State Government continues a decades-long pattern of unremitting fraud in Nigeria’s public service sector. This figure pales into insignificance however when compared to the over 60,000 “ghosts” discovered on the payroll of the Federal Government in 2014 and a further 50,000 thereafter. All tiers of government should take stronger measures to smash the syndicates that have fed fat on the treasury for decades and prosecute the perpetrators.

Nigeria is probably the only country on the planet where government announces the discovery of fake names on its payroll, cuts off some of the so-called “ghosts” and moves on until another batch is uncovered, and announcement made as “achievement” –and the cycle continues. Our governments should stop acting like potentates presiding over a banana republic. When public funds are stolen, the responsibility of the state is to investigate, apprehend and diligently prosecute offenders. We challenge the federal and state governments that have recently uncovered such payroll fraud to act swiftly by identifying the offending officials and beneficiaries of the undeserved salaries and prosecuting them in the courts.

Nigerians are paying dearly for payroll fraud. When, in October 2014, the then Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, announced that over 60,000 fictitious names had been discovered and removed from federal ministries, departments and agencies, 10,000 more than what an initial audit had pinpointed, she put savings from this at N160 billion a year. In 2013, government claimed to have saved N170 billion from the axing of a similar figure of about 60,000 “ghosts.” A partial survey by Saturday PUNCH in June revealed that the federal and 10 state governments lost at least N538 billion in the five years to 2015 through padding of public sector payrolls.

Virtually none of the 36 states, 774 local government councils and the Federal Capital Territory has been immune to this haemorrhage. Last month, Kwara identified 8,863 fake names on the state’s and 16 LGs’ pay vouchers, through which N437.5 million was being stolen each month. Earlier in July, the Kogi State Auditor-General said the state government had paid out N213 billion in 13 years to ghost workers.

The United States Association of Certified Fraud Examiners defines payroll fraud as “any scheme in which an employee causes his employer to issue a payment by making false claim for compensation.” This includes falsified wages where multiple or inflated salaries are drawn; ghost employees where non-existent staff are paid under fictitious identities; false benefit, periodic draws. All these forms are endemic in Nigeria’s public sector.

It is perhaps because the three tiers of government depend overwhelmingly for their revenues on crude oil receipts that they routinely fail to uncover the perpetrators and uproot and dismiss the officials without whom such crimes cannot be committed. In Katsina State, the names of the wives, children and domestic servants of highly placed public officials were once found on the rolls. In Bayelsa State, which said in 2009 that it saved N118.9 billion by uncovering 46,821 fictitious workers, by 2016, still locating 765 fakes in its basic education agency alone, including 50 deceased teachers.

With the Federal Government borrowing to pay its workers and 33 states perpetually in arrears in salary and pension payment, the new broom of anti-corruption and transparency should sweep the public service clean of ghost workers and send offenders to jail. Imagine how many classrooms or primary health clinics that the N160 billion figure given by Okonjo-Iweala or the N4.1 billion lost annually by the Adamawa State Government to “spirits” would have built. The government should follow through with technology deployment such as the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System deployed by Abuja and Bank Verification Number introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria that links an individual’s accounts biometrically. Both have been very useful in identifying fake workers and individuals drawing multiple salaries.

We encourage all tiers of government to log on to modern technology, institute permanent investigation, surveillance and monitoring systems for all financial transactions, including payroll and human resources management. Payroll fraud is not exclusive to Nigeria. A study found that payroll fraud occurs in 27 per cent of all businesses in the US and Canada. It is how the Nigerian state deals with it in the public sector that is different. In the private sector, payroll fraud is detected within a short time and swiftly punished with dismissals and criminal prosecution. In our public sector, the criminals enjoy a seeming immunity from identification, censure and prosecution.

We however insist that the perpetrators be henceforth identified and severely punished. The scale of the crime shows clearly that it is well organised, involves senior and middle-level officials and is also extensive. Crime experts say that a criminal ring is easier to smash when the number of people involved is large. The police and the anti-graft agencies should wade in as it is obvious that senior civil servants are likely complicit and have therefore failed to stop the practice on their own, despite their authority and means to do so by administrative mechanism.

The permanent secretaries, directors and heads of MDAs at federal, state and local levels cannot escape culpability and should be held responsible for the ghost worker syndrome. Those who authorise salaries and authenticate staff rolls should explain how so many fake names entered the vouchers. The government will demonstrate its seriousness when it hands down dismissals, compulsory retirements as well as arrests and prosecution of the payroll fraudsters. From units and sections to departments, divisions and agencies, there are accounting officers who signed off on bogus payrolls. They should be identified and punished along with their external accomplices.

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